HeathKnits

With so many knitters enjoying color work, especially on yokes of sweaters, I went looking for ways to encourage designing. Working out a design on paper is a traditional starting point and with yokes, it’s no different. So play with all the ideas floating around in your brain.

This knitters’ graph paper will print to your gauge for a clear look at that great idea.

There IS a product that can help relax rolled edges in stockinette knitting. While trolling Amazon for Unshrink It, a product to help unshrink knits, I discovered a world of wrinkle releasers and decreasers. After reading the reviews and searching on line for testimonials from independent sources (aka knitters), it turns out there are lots of brave knitters who regularly use these products.

So I share with you, dear knitter, with the caveat that I personally have not tried these products yet but the Amazon robot assures me that it will be here tomorrow.

Color work includes any project in which more than one color of yarn is used.

When washing a beautiful fair isle knit, striped knit, mosaic knit or other color work knit, add a tablespoon of white vinegar to the soak water. Often color runs during the drying phase while the project is still damp, but the use of vinegar will stop this phenomenon.

Does the final stitch of the bind off leave a big loop? Here is a simple trick to end that problem.

1. 1. Bind off to the last stitch on the L needle.
   2. Slip the last stitch from L needle to R needle.
   3. Locate the stitch below the last stitch.
   4. Pick up that stitch with the L needle tip.
   5. Slip the unworked stitch from the R needle back onto the L needle. There should be 2 sts on the L needle now.
   6. Knit the 2 sts together (K2tog). Cut yarn and pull through to fasten off.

Knit confidently!

Binding off over a cable can lead to flaring.

Try this bind off for a better finish:

1. 1. Work the first 3 stitches to be bound off in pattern.
   2. Lift the first stitch worked (on the right needle) over the other two stitches and off the end of the needle.
   3. *Work the next stitch on the left needle and repeat step 2* repeat from * to * until final two stitches.
   4. Bind off the last 2 stitches traditionally by lifting the first over the second. Secure last stitch.

Keep a spare US 1 or 2 needle in your accessories bag for these moments. The goal is to calmly catch the stitches with as few stitches unraveling as possible. A small needle is easier to get through the loose stitches than the gauge needle.

After all stitches have been placed on to the needle, now work them onto the gauge needle and place them in the proper position. (Right leg forward.)

When knitting or purling, the correct position for a stitch to sit on the needle is with the right leg forward.

If it feels “funny” or “tight” when working a stitch, check to see that the right leg is toward the front of the work. (If you knit eastern combined, then this will not hold true on knit stitches, but you already know that.)

Need to cast on 100 plus stitches?

Use a stitch marker after each 25 or 50 stitches cast on to help keep track of all those stitches.